


Mortal Body, Timeless Soul

by Phanicmode



Category: Homestuck
Genre: First Kiss, Fluff, M/M, Meteorstuck, sleeping karkat, this is very self indulgent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-02
Updated: 2015-12-02
Packaged: 2018-05-04 11:21:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5332316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phanicmode/pseuds/Phanicmode
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Dave Strider realizes just how cute Karkat is when he sleeps.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mortal Body, Timeless Soul

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is legit my first finished fanfic. This is also the product of some 3 am sleep deprivation. I mean, hey I couldn't sleep, so why not let Karkat get some instead?

Dave can’t even focus anymore.

The SBAHJ comic in his lap almost seems to bleed insanity into his plaid pajama pants, so he sets down his alchemized colored pencils and printer paper and allows himself to focus on the one thing that he’s been wanting to all night. 

Out of the corner of his eye, just beyond where the dark brown tint of his shades stop, he can see Karkat sprawled over the couch looking like he got KO’d by a professional wrestler. One leg is slung over the top of the couch, and the other is folded in a way that doesn’t even look possible, let alone comfortable. Dave really isn’t sure how Karkat can stand to lie with his limbs all pretzel-like, but if you got one look at his face right then, you’d think that little troll had discovered some kind of Nirvana. It didn’t hurt that he was taking one of the hugest fucking snoozes Dave had seen that kid take in almost a year. 

Dave can’t even focus anymore because holy shit Karkat has never looked cuter than he does when he sleeps. 

His face is even, devoid of all of the anger and tension that normally clouds his features while he’s conscious. Dave can’t help but marvel at how smooth his forehead looks when it’s not all scrunched up in frustration. From his spot a few feet away on the plushy bean bag they alchemized, Dave can just barely see a few of his pointy little teeth poking out over his lip. He can’t help it. He scoots closer. 

Hair, darker than night, darker than those corridors on the meteor where the lights have burned out, is falling so horribly into Karkat’s face that it’s a wonder it isn’t tickling his nose. If Dave leans in just a little bit more, he can count those soft, almost invisible freckles that dot only across the bridge of his cheeks. Maybe just this once, Dave can push his sunglasses into his hair, to see how Karkat really looks in the light…

So with lightly tentative hands, that’s what he does. With the light still shining from the husktop behind Dave, Karkat’s face is lit up with such a soft blue light that he looks almost divine. Dave’s breath catches, just a little bit. Heat sears up in his stomach, that familiar swooping sensation he’s come to associate with Too Much Time with Karkat Vantas©. God, this funny little troll would be the death of him. 

Dave thanks every deity he’s ever heard of that Karkat’s asleep for this. He’d never be allowed to keep his cool kid rep if anyone saw the dopey lovesick expression that Dave was almost certain had made its way onto his face. Karkat was just… so cute. If Dave had known the first time that that angry grey text had appeared on his screen that he would feel this way for someone he had pegged as annoying and horrible, well… he didn’t know what he would have done. But no matter what, he’s here now. Whatever choices they’ve made has led Dave to almost nightly movie marathons and one or two snuggle instances that neither of them bring up. Dave doesn’t know if he wants them to bring it up.

Because when he’s sitting here, so vulnerable, with his literal insecurities on display for Karkat, whether he knows it or not, Dave can’t deny that there’s something different here. He can’t stop himself from noticing the soft way Karkat’s eyelashes flutter, how dark and thick they are. He can’t stop himself from noticing the curve of his spine when Karkat’s adding a new addition to can town’s Central Park. He can’t stop himself from feeling heat rise to his face when he notices the way Karkat’s eyes are turning red, like bloody roses spouting in his irises, and the thrill that runs through him knowing that in a few months their eyes with be the exact same. 

Speaking of eyes…

Lost in his ponderings of cute alien troll boys, Dave had failed to notice that said cute alien troll boy was now slightly less relaxed in his posture. His limbs and face were just a little more taut, a little more awake. And if Dave had been more lucid, he would have noticed that the eyes he had been fantasizing about were now gazing pointedly into his own uncovered gaze. There was still a good foot between their faces, but Dave had never felt like more of himself was being seen than at that moment. He had never felt like they were closer. 

“What are you doing…?” the murmur came from Karkat’s lips, a sound too soft to even be barely recognizable as the angry shouting troll that is his trademark. But his eyes showed just how sleep addled he was, and the slur of his tongue through his words showed how much of his mind was still not there. Dave was equally as incoherent.

“Oh, y’know…” He could feel a blush settling in firmly on his cheekbones. “Nothing.”

Karkat pushed himself up just a little bit further, so that he was resting on his elbows. This did nothing to stop Dave’s now rampant heart palpitations, as this movement had halved the distance between their faces. And without his shades to cover up, just how being close to Karkat was affecting him was on full display. Karkat did not miss this fact.

“Well, look at that.” His voice was getting clearer, but it was still lower and smoother than normal. “You do have eyes under there.” Dave could feel a tug at his lips, a slight smirk starting to let loose, but he held that sucker back. No way was he going to let Vantas win this round.

“Well, you know me. Had to keep that aura of mystery around me. Imagine, with peepers like these, all the ladies would be doing backflips just trying to get to me. It’d be like the motherfucking Olympics all up in here, with skin tight leotards and pirouettes. Better bring out those medals boys because-“. He’s cut off by Karkat plucking his shades of his head and sliding them over his own eyes. Dave doesn’t think he’s ever been left so speechless in his miserable 15 years of life. 

“Shut up asshole. Fuck, how do you even see out of these things? It’s like the worlds 10 degrees darker, I can barely even see your face.” And with that he’s leaning in even closer. With their breaths mingling together, and Karkat still smirking across from him, looking like the epitome of douchebaggery, it’s all Dave can do to not reach for him. 

His hair is still tousled and fluffy from sleep. Little candy corn nubs of horns peek out from that raging ocean of keratin. And Dave is so thankful for his clumsy mishap earlier in the night, when his spilt soda had caused tight edged turtle neck Vantas to change into one of Dave’s old overlarge record shirts. The neck hole is so big that it slips off his shoulder, and the dip in his collarbone looks deep enough to serve salsa in, and that makes weird feelings in his stomach so he moves his eyes back up to Karkat’s face where he is still smirking haughtily at him. Dave can’t help but inwardly melt at the slightly off-kilter placement of those shades on the bridge of his nose, the fact that they were just a little bit too wide, and slipped softly off of one of his ears. 

“They don’t suit you at all.” Just like that, Dave’s voice is back down to an almost whisper. It seems oddly intimate, with the hushed voices and soft tones, and Dave can’t help but wonder, not for the first time, if troll lips are as soft as they seem to look. 

“Really, Strider? Cause I feel like the coolest of cool kids right now. I could walk up to Terezi and she would even be able to smell the difference. I bet I could be a better Dave than you could ever be.” And because he’s Karkat, he’s so Karkat and when Dave goes softer he grows louder. Because Karkat is loud, and he’s crass, and he’s impatient and caring and loyal and really, really cute when he sleeps. Because he’s all of those things and more, of secrets that he keeps locked up under his skin. That’s why Dave surges forward to press his lips to those soft, soft gray ones. And when he feels the shock running through Karkat’s body, then feels as the tension drains from him, Dave allows himself one small smile on the lips of this cute alien boy. The tentative hand that traces his jaw, the way his eyelashes feel on Dave’s cheeks, and the wholehearted knowledge of knowing this is Karkat. This is the boy that I like. I am kissing him and he is kissing me back. That is what makes him smile.

**Author's Note:**

> Whoo! There we go. I don't cuss irl so it was a little strange to be writing this. Luckily, Homestuck has made me a lot more comfortable when using profanity. I'm still not sure if this is a good thing, or a bad thing.


End file.
